


The Beginnings of Whatever Comes Next

by kamala_khan_for_president



Series: Life On The Farm-Verse [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adoption, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Multi, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Compliant, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-02 14:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15798423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamala_khan_for_president/pseuds/kamala_khan_for_president
Summary: What Rhodey expected to come back to the Compound with the fugitive Avengers were some emotional baggage and two-year-old grudges. What he didn't expect were secret families, a baby, relationship drama from the world of mutants and... baby fever?





	1. Welcome Back

“They’re here!” Peter yelled as he spotted the quinjet break through the clouds. He raced ahead of Rhodey, who wheeled after him as fast as he could.

Pepper caught up with the two of them as they reached the landing pad, her arms holding a giant pink bunny rabbit.

“What’s that for?” Rhodey asked.

“You’ll see,” Pepper responded with a smirk.

Before he could try and get any more information out of her, the quinjet landed in front of them. The loud engines powered down and the ramp lowered, revealing the full group at the back of the quinjet. The first person down the ramp was Tony, although he was very quickly followed by an excited girl. She raced up to Pepper.

“Is Cassie here yet?” she asked. Rhodey frowned; who was this girl and how did she know Ant-Man’s daughter?

“Not yet Lila,” Pepper answered.

“Is that for Oksana?” the girl, Lila, asked, pointing at the toy rabbit toy. 

“It is,” Pepper said. 

“Lila, wait for us,” Clint called out as he dashed down the ramp after the girl. He stopped just behind her and rested one hand on her back as if to stop her from going anywhere. “Lila, this is James Rhodes and Vision” 

Rhodey looked behind him to see that Vision had joined the group. He hadn’t heard him arrive, he must’ve phased through the door. 

“Hi Mr Rhodes, I’m Lila Barton,” the girl introduced as she stuck her hand out to shake. 

“Just Rhodey,” he said as he shook her hand. “Wait, did you just say Barton?” 

“This is my daughter,” Clint explained. “My wife and two of our other kids are just coming” 

Rhodey sat and took in this information as the others came out of the quinjet. A woman and two young boys, one a couple of years older than Lila and the other only a few years old. 

“Hi,” the woman said. “I’m Laura, Clint’s wife. This is Cooper and Nate” 

“Hi,” Rhodey replied in a confused voice. He turned back to Clint. “You said two of your  _other kids_ , how many do you have?” 

“Just another daughter, but she’s not here yet,” Laura answered.

“Right, just one more, I can handle that,” Rhodey muttered to himself. He looked around at the rest of the group leaving the quinjet. “Is Natasha holding a baby? And where’s Wanda?”

“Mom and Dad just said that she’s not here yet,” Lila said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Wanda’s your daughter?” Rhodey spluttered out.

“Unofficially adopted,” Laura hurriedly explained, taking pity on when she saw the confused look on his face. “It’s complicated. I can explain it to you when everyone’s inside”

“That would brilliant,” Rhodey thanked. He hung back as everyone began to head inside. He ended up walking with Bruce and Natasha and the small baby in a carrier next to them. “So, I presume this is the reason that you guys had to turn around the other week”

Natasha smiled at his joke. “Yeah, she decided she had to make a dramatic entrance into this world and time it like that”

“Hopefully that won’t be a warning for what she’s like in the future,” Bruce said with a grin. Under his arm, he had the giant pink toy rabbit that Pepper had been carrying earlier.

“I heard Lila say something to Pepper about that toy being for Oksana, is that her name?” Rhodey asked.

“Oksana Jennifer Banner,” Natasha confirmed. She frowned slightly at her friend. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he promised. “This just isn’t what I was expecting to happen today”

“You haven’t heard even half of what’s happened in the last couple of years,” Natasha said with a smile.

“What does that mean? Natasha, what does that mean?” Rhodey asked. When Natasha didn’t answer, he looked over at Bruce. “Bruce, what does she mean? What do you guys mean?”

Bruce and Natasha just smirked at each other and walked into the Compound, leaving a confused Rhodey behind them.

***

“Boss, Maggie Lang and her family have just arrived at the gates, they’ll be in the building in approximately two minutes,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. informed as the group were still walking through the halls.

Tony turned around to Hope and Scott. “Give me your stuff, you guys go meet them. F.R.I.D.A.Y. will tell you which way to go”

Hope and Scott thanked Tony and headed off down the corridor, listening to F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s directions as they went. Lila turned and gave her parents a look with the widest eyes she could possibly muster.

“Go on,” Laura said. She took Lila’s unicorn suitcase and watched as her she raced after Scott and Hope. Once Lila had disappeared around the corner, she turned back her husband. “Life is going to be a little bit crazier with Cassie around Lila all the time”

Clint smirked. “What, because the rest of the Avengers won’t be?”

“Please,” Laura replied. “We were used to having the majority of them around anyway”

Clint laughed lightly, and the pair carried on walking with everyone else to the private living space in the Compound.

***

Rhodey looked around at the group of people gathered in the main room of the Compound’s living quarters. He leant over to talk to Tony. “There’s a lot of children here,” he whispered. He threw a glance over to where Lila and Cassie were chatting in the corner. “And I only knew about one of them this morning”

Tony shrugged. “You didn’t need to know about them until this morning”

“Who’s that girl over there?” Rhodey asked, pointing at a girl with long brown hair pulled back in a messy bun. “She looks like Wanda, but it isn’t unless something weird has happened to her in the last two years that made her age ten years”

“Oh, no, that’s her sister Anya,” Tony explained casually. “Her full one, Lorna’s only Anya and Wanda’s half-sister. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to tell her apart from the other two really easily, her hair’s naturally green”

“Wanda has sisters?” Rhodey hissed.

“Yeah, you’ve missed a lot,” Tony said.

“What, like Clint is married and has three kids?” Rhodey asked. “Or Bruce and Nat have a kid now and are getting married? Or Steve is dating Bucky?”

“Mainly that, but other stuff has happened too, we met the Young Avengers”

Rhodey didn’t respond, just wheeled his chair away. He stopped next to Bruce and Nat, who were sat on one of the smaller sofas, Nat holding their daughter close against her chest. “Hi,” he greeted quietly. “Sorry if I freaked out a little bit earlier. This has just been a bit of a weird day for me”

“I can imagine,” Bruce said. “But if it helps, I can’t imagine things getting much weirder”

***

Shuri pulled the car up to the gates of the Compound. She rolled down the car window as they approached the guardhouse. The guard posted at the gate walked up to the car, seeming annoyed at having to deal with people trying to get into the place.

 “Is there anything I can help you with?” he asked sarcastically. It was then he properly looked into the car, his eyes bugging open comically when he saw who was in the passenger seat. “Miss Maximoff, I wasn’t aware you weren’t arriving with others. Would you like me to alert anyone that you’re here?”

“No thanks,” Wanda replied. “I’m sure F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s already done it”

He nodded and opened the gates, allowing the girls into the Compound. The car pulled through the gates, letting Wanda back onto the grounds for the first time in two years.

“You nervous?” Lorna asked from where she was sat in the back of the car.

“Very,” Wanda answered. “But not about what happened between me and Vision when I shoved him through the floor of the Compound two years ago. I just don’t know how I’m going to face my parents after leaving them like that”

“Oh god, Anya is going kill me,” Lorna muttered. “You should be okay, she hasn’t known you long enough to gather enough past failures to use against like she has with me. But your parents, on the other hand, are who’d I’d watch out for, they’re going to kill you”

“Thanks for the reassurance,” Wanda sighed.

“I wasn’t reassuring you,” Lorna said. “This was our last hurrah before we both get killed by our families”

Shuri laughed at the bickering sisters as she parked the car in the Compound’s underground parking garage. The three grabbed their bags and made their way through the Compound, Wanda leading the way. She pushed open the door to the Avenger’s private living area, thankful that either the codes hadn’t changed, or Tony had taken pity on her and changed the codes back. The first person they saw was Anya.

“Lorna Sally Dane,” she hissed.

Lorna shifted her bag on her shoulder and shot the other two a double thumbs-up. “It was nice knowing you.” She walked over to Anya and allowed herself to be dragged away.

“I’m going to go call my brother,” Shuri said, leaving Wanda alone to find her parents.

She started wandering around looking for someone else. Wanda spotted Bruce leaving his and Natasha’s room. “Bruce,” she called out. “Are my parents here?”

“No, they’re-”

“It’s okay, I get it,” Wanda sighed. “I’ll see you around.” She pushed past him and took a few tentative steps towards the room he’d just left.

“Seeya,” Bruce muttered before heading off to find Tony.

Wanda knocked lightly on the doorframe to Bruce and Natasha’s room before entering. She let out a small gasp when she saw Natasha sat in a rocking chair in the corner, cradling her baby to her chest. “Hi,” she muttered softly.

Natasha looked up when Wanda spoke. Her hair was shorter, now barely brushing her shoulders, and a deep red pendant hung on a silver chain around her neck, but other than that, she was the same girl that left the farmhouse in the middle of the nights six months ago. “Hey you, long time no see,” she joked. She shifted so she was sat up a little straighter. “You coming in?”

Wanda stepped into the room, dragging a red suitcase behind her. She sat nervously on the edge of the bed. “What’s their name?”

“Oksana Jennifer Banner,” Natasha introduced.

Wanda smiled at the little girl. “I didn’t do it,” she said quietly. Natasha’s eyes flickered over to Wanda. She read every little expression on her face carefully, trying to understand what was going on inside the girl’s mind; had she even noticed that she’d started speaking Sokovian?

“What do you mean?” Natasha asked, keeping with the Sokovian.

“I abandoned everyone to try and find my birth father, who I have never met before, in a desperate attempt to try and change the future,” Wanda sighed. “And I didn’t even do it. I chickened out and came running back home”

“Wanda, you’re allowed to be scared by all of this, this is huge,” Natasha reassured. “Your kids made the choice to come back and try and change things. You didn’t. you just had this whole mess dumped on you. If coming back here to be with the rest of us is what you need to do, then do it”

Wanda sat in silence for a moment. “I went to see Billy, Tommy and Luna again”

“You did?”

“I went by the Young Avengers base a few times,” Wanda admitted. “But I haven’t been in a few months”

Natasha raised her eyes slightly. “Why not?”

“I saw TJ and Viv. My daughter and my stepdaughter. I worked out who the dad was by the way, which was weird, and I am not getting into that right now,” Wanda explained. “It was weird seeing my daughter like that. It was the first time I ever saw her and she’s only four years younger than me”

“What was she like?” Natasha asked. “Tell me about her”

“She was beautiful,” Wanda said with a smile on her face. “And blue. I mean, bright blue. Like, her skin and hair were blue, and her eyes were yellow. She had this attitude that came of straight away when I talked to her. I obviously must’ve gotten something right with her. That, or her dad did, whoever he is”

“Hey,” Natasha argued. “Don’t knock yourself down like that. You’re going to be a great mom; those kids are prepared to do anything to protect you and the rest of your family.” Wanda smiled meekly at Natasha. “Wanda, I don’t know if you’d noticed, but you’d started speaking Sokovian,” Natasha pointed out.

Wanda blushed slightly and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry,” she apologised. “The last few months at the Mutant Underground and the school, they never seemed to really trust me. They liked Lorna because they already knew her. It wasn’t so bad at first, but then I was telling them a dumb story from an Avengers mission and I mentioned Dad. They were so confused, they said that they thought I’d never even met Erik, let alone been on a mission with him. When I said who I was actually talking about, they started treating me differently. To them, I wasn’t the daughter of a famous mutant anymore-”

“You were the daughter of an Avenger,” Natasha finished. “What does that have to do with the Sokovian?”

“They never really gave us any privacy to talk, so every time we had something important to talk about, we spoke in Sokovian, Lorna and me,” Wanda explained. “Shuri war pretty quick to pick it up. I hadn’t realised I wasn’t speaking English to you just now, sorry”

“Don’t worry about it,” Natasha reassured. “If speaking to me in Sokovian makes you feel more comfortable, then feel free to. And hey, you know Russian as well right?” Wanda nodded. “Then I can count on you to just roll with it if I randomly switch languages as well”

“I do prefer them to English,” Wanda laughed. “After I first came here from Sokovia, Dad used to speak to me in Sokovian a lot. It helped but we couldn’t keep doing it because Mom and the others couldn’t understand a word we were saying”

“He’s been teaching them while you were gone,” Natasha said. “They’re not brilliant, far from it, but they’re getting there. Lila, in particular, keeps bugging Anya to teach her more”

“They’re a good family, but I messed that up,” Wanda muttered the last part of her sentence under her breath.

“What are you talking about?” Natasha asked.

“Please, the door wasn’t even closed,” Wanda said with a sigh. “You heard what Bruce said, they’re not here. I messed it all up and they stayed away, not that I can blame them”

“Yes, I heard you not give Bruce a chance to finish talking,” Natasha teased. “They’re not at the Compound right now because they’re out with the Langs looking at local schools. Wanda, they would never leave you”

Wanda laughed lightly with relief. “But I left them. They took me into their family and I just ran away”

“They understood why, if anything it was Anya that was most annoyed,” Natasha joked.

“Yeah, Lorna went to deal with her,” Wanda said. “Glad it wasn’t me”

The sound of cars coming up the long gravel driveway caught the attention of the two women.

“Looks like they’re home,” Natasha smiled. Wanda stood from the bed. “Hey, don’t worry, it’ll be fine. And, one last thing before you go: what happened to the hair?”

“It got a little scorched in a fire a few weeks ago and I had to cut the ends off,” she explained. “It was totally Marcos’s fault, no matter how much he tries to deny it”

Natasha smiled as Wanda ran off. She looked out the window as her friends got out of the car, smiling slightly knowing that they had no idea that Wanda was waiting for them inside.

A small cry from Oksana broke through her thoughts and she turned her attention back to her daughter. She rocked the little girl lightly in her arms until she quietened back down.

“Sorry, Mommy got a little distracted,” she whispered. “She just wanted to watch her friends, they’re going to be so happy to see their daughter again. And she’s happy to see them as well. Hey, promise me that when your Wanda’s age, you’ll still love me and Daddy as much as she loves her parents”

***

Lila and Cassie were the first back inside, the arms looped together as they burst through the doors, giggling as they went.

“I can’t wait to start at that school,” Cassie said loudly, flopping down on the sofa, Lila quickly joining her. Lucky ran over to the two girls and quickly jumped up onto the sofa next to them, tail wagging wildly as he went.

“Is he allowed on the sofa?” Rhodey asked.

“No,” Tony said.

“Yes,” Clint said at the same time. The two men turned and stared at each other. “What do you mean ‘no’? We let him on the furniture all the time at back at the farmhouse”

“Yeah, well this is expensive furniture,” Tony argued. “I don’t want the dog to ruin it”

Amidst all the arguing, nobody noticed Lucky’s head lift up as he spotted someone on the other side of the room. He barked in excitement and threw himself down onto the floor to run to whoever he’d spotted. Everyone watched as he went, stopping in front of Wanda. He jumped up at her, tail excitedly hitting against her legs.

“Hey,” she said awkwardly. She rubbed the top of the dog’s head as everyone else in the room stared at her.

“We should go,” Maggie said. She shot Cassie a look and the girl trailed out of the room behind the rest of her family, Tony following the group, leaving only the Barton family behind.

Laura crossed the room in a few quick steps and wrapped her arms around Wanda, holding the girl close to her. She pressed a few kisses to the side of Wanda’s head before pulling back slightly and cupping the girl’s face in her hands. A few small tears were beginning to fall down both of their faces.

Laura tucked a loose strand of Wanda’s hair behind her ear. “What happened to your hair?”

Wanda laughed and brought her hand up to where Laura’s was and covered it with her own. “I missed you so much.” Slowly, the rest of the family came over and joined the pair until Wanda was completely surrounded. “I can’t breathe,” she muttered.

Clint laughed and pulled himself away from the group hug and led everyone over to the sofa to sit down. “I can’t believe you’re back”

“I’m so sorry for ever leaving,” Wanda apologised. “I understand why you were mad and didn’t come after me and Lorna and Shuri when we left”

“Wanda, that’s not why we didn’t come after you,” Clint interrupted.

“It’s not?”

“No,” he answered. “Sure we were a little mad at first for you leaving how you did, but never for leaving. We understand why you did it and we knew this was something you had to do by yourself. We weren’t going to stop you”

“That doesn’t mean that we didn’t miss you every single day,” Laura promised.

“Yeah,” Lila added. “You promised you would teach me Sokovian, but Anya and Dad had to instead”

“I’m back now,” Wanda said. “I can help you”

“But what if you leave again?” Lila asked.

Clint and Laura shot each other a look as they felt the tension in the room increase dramatically, before turning their attention back to their daughters. Lila was sat next to Wanda on the sofa, a distance of a foot separating the two girls. Wanda slid closer to Lila, closing the gap between them and looped her arms around her younger sister, pulling her tight against her side.

“I wish I would promise you that I won’t leave again but being an Avenger means that I can’t promise that,” Wanda explained. “But if I do have to leave again, for a mission or anything, I promise I won’t leave without telling you, okay?”

“Okay,” Lila agreed. “Can I show you my new room? It’s huge and super cool”

Wanda stood up and allowed herself to be lead off to her sister’s room. Cooper jumped up and followed the two, yelling about showing Wanda his room as well, Nate trailing behind the three of them.

Laura leant back against her husband as she watched their kids run away to their rooms. “I’m glad she’s back,” she said.

Clint hummed in agreement and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “She never did answer about what happened to her hair, did she?”

“No, she didn’t,” Laura replied.

***

“Hey, Hope, what’s this?” Scott called from the bedroom.

“What’s what?” Hope shouted back. She stuck her head out of the bathroom door when he didn’t reply. Her eyes bugged open when she saw the white bag he’d found in her suitcase. “Oh, you found those”

“Hope, what’s going on?” he asked.

Hope took a few steps over and sat down on the edge of the bed, Scott still stood by their suitcases on the other side. “Natasha gave me some stuff that she bought last December, but never used,” Hope started to explain. “I knew something was… different, but I couldn’t know for sure. I went to Natasha for help, and…”

She trailed off, leaving Scott staring at her cluelessly. “Do you want me to look in the bag?”

Hope nodded. “You probably should.” She watched him as he slowly opened the bag, carefully observing his face, trying to gauge his reaction. She could tell the exact moment that he realised what was he was holding. “Natasha gave you half a dozen unused pregnancy tests?”

“Yes?” Hope replied.

“And all of them are…”

“Positive,” Hope confirmed.

Scott nodded and gently put the bag back down, before clumsily launching himself over the bed at Hope. She let out a loud laugh at his sudden change in mood and wrapped her arms tight around him.

“I love you, I love you so much,” he said as he nuzzled into her hair.

“I love you too,” Hope replied. She pulled back so that they were sat facing each other and looked him dead in the eye. “Just promise me one thing”

“What?” Scott asked.

“Don’t try and convince me to name this baby after either of my parents,” she said.

Scott grinned at her. “Promise.” He took her hands in his and smiled lovingly at her. “I understand if you don’t want to tell everyone else yet, but-”

“You want to tell Cassie,” Hope finished. “I understand. She’s your daughter and she deserves to be the first to know that she’s going to be a big sister”

“Thank you for understanding,” Scott said.

“Of course,” Hope replied. “But we’ll probably have to tell Maggie and Paxton as well”

Scott smiled at her again and she couldn’t help but grin wildly back, excited at the thought of the two of them starting a family together.

***

“Dinner,” Rhodey yelled down the hall. He watched as everyone emerged from their rooms or moved over to the table from the sofas. “This is a lot more people than I’m used to”

Everyone sat down, and Wanda couldn’t help but notice all the looks she was getting from everyone else. “It’s the hair, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Yeah, you didn’t answer us earlier,” Laura added.

“I got a bit of an answer out of her earlier,” Natasha said. “Something to do with someone called Marcos”

“Who’s Marcos?” Rhodey asked, worried that he’d somehow missed a person in all that had happened that day.

“One of our friends from the Mutant Underground,” Lorna explained.

“Lorna’s boyfriend,” Wanda added.

Anya choked slightly on her drink and turned to stare at her younger sister. “Lorna has a boyfriend?” she asked as she regained her breath. “Since when?”

“A couple of months ago,” Shuri answered, smirking when she saw the look that Lorna was giving her.

“I’m going to kill you,” Lorna whispered to her friend.

“I don’t see what this has to do with your hair,” Laura said to Wanda before Lorna and Shuri could start fighting.

“Marcos’ powers mean that he can absorb and emit photons in the form of light and high energy rays and I got a little too close to the intended target during training and singed half my hair off,” Wanda explained.

“So, Lorna’s new boyfriend almost blew up Wanda,” Tony teased. “He sounds fun. I look forward to meeting him”

“Meeting him?” Lorna asked nervously. She glanced around the table to see everyone nodding in agreement. “Why would you guys be meeting him?”

“I can’t speak for the rest of them, but while Dad’s not here, it falls to me to intimidate anyone that you date and make sure they aren’t going to hurt you,” Anya explained.

“And we’d all be more than willing to lend our services,” Sam offered, shooting a teasing grin at Lorna.

“Don’t worry,” Wanda reassured. “I already got a head start on the intimidation”

Lorna groaned and slid down in her seat. She knew this was going to be something that she wasn’t going to be living down for a while.

***

“Hey, can we talk to you two for a minute?” Hope asked Maggie and Paxton. On the other side of the room, she could see Scott already detaching his daughter from Lila and bringing her over to the rest of the group.

“Of course,” Maggie answered. “Here or somewhere else?”

Hope nodded down the hall slightly and the group of five made their way to where Scott and Hope’s room was. Cassie was quick to bounce onto the bed and Maggie and Paxton both sat on either side of her, leaving Hope and Scott stood in front of them.

“So,” Hope began. “There was something we wanted to tell you.” She stopped, unsure of what to say next, how to phrase the big news she had to give. She wrung her hands slightly as she started to pace the room.

Maggie watched her as she moved. While her hands kept moving, they kept coming to rest on her stomach. It may have still been flat, but Maggie had been through this before and recognised the signs. She let out a small gasp. “Hope’s pregnant”

“Really?” Cassie squealed. She looked over at her dad and his girlfriend. Scott nodded. “I’m going to be a big sister!”

She launched herself off the bed and Scott braced himself for impact but was surprised when it never came. He looked over to his side to see that Cassie had instead thrown herself at Hope, much as he had done earlier. The little girl’s arms were locked tightly around the woman’s torso and there was a huge grin on her face. She beckoned for Hope to lean down.

“What is it?” Hope asked as she crouched down on the floor at Cassie’s level.

Cassie pushed back Hope’s long hair and whispered in her ear. “Thank you for being part of our family and making my Dad happy.” She then wrapped her arms around Hope for a second hug.

Scott came down onto the floor with Hope and Cassie. “Hey, peanut, I need you to promise me something. You can’t tell anyone else about this yet, not even Lila? Okay?”

Cassie didn’t say anything, just stuck her finger out for a pinky promise, which Scott swore upon, a serious look on his face.

“Group hug,” Paxton declared and he and Maggie quickly joined the rest of the group on the floor, all of them laughing lightly as Paxton attempted to get his arms around all of them at once.

***

"You wanted to talk to us,” Laura said as she, Clint and Wanda walked into the room. It was the main conference room in the Compound. The last time Wanda had been there was when Secretary Ross first proposed the Sokovia Accords to her and the rest of the team, leaving her feeling uncomfortable as she sat in the room. Wanda and her parents were sat on one side of the table and Pepper and Tony were sat with a woman she hadn’t seen before opposite.

“This is Kimberley Torres, one of Stark Industries’ lawyers. She’s here with to discuss what’s happening with Wanda’s visa,” Pepper introduced.

“No,” Wanda snapped suddenly. Everyone else in the room turned to look at her. “I’m not going back to Sokovia. I can’t go back, not after everything that happened with Ultron. And now that I know that I’m a mutant, there’s no way that I’m going to be safe there”

“Don’t worry Miss Maximoff,” Kimberly reassured. “That’s not the issue right now. I’ve been emailing Mrs Barton over the past week and from what she’s told me, you have a very good case for being able to stay here. You have a biological parent and full sibling that both obtained full citizenship fleeing the same country that you are and a half-sibling that was born here. If I can obtain DNA samples from you, Miss Eisenhardt and Miss Dane to prove that you are all related, then that combined with the fact that the UN wants to keep the Avengers on their side right now, then I think that we can make them budge and grant you full citizenship without having to go through any of the regular channels”

Wanda let out a sigh of relief and slumped back in her chair. “Thank you”

“What about that other thing I mentioned in my email?” Laura asked. Wanda looked over at her mom in confusion. Whatever she was talking about, Clint seemed to understand as well, although Pepper and Tony were just as confused as Wanda was.

“That would still be an option if you chose to go through with it,” Kimberly answered, not giving away any information as to what ‘it’ was. “It would not mean she’d be granted citizenship and I would recommend that you wait until after the citizenship goes through, but, like I said, the possibility is always on the table for you”

“Thank you,” Clint said. Everyone stood, and he reached over the table to shake Kimberly’s hand. The group left the room and Tony, Pepper and Kimberly headed down the corridor, leaving Laura, Clint and Wanda behind.

“What was she talking about?” Wanda asked her parents. “What have you been emailing her about?”

Clint and Laura shot each other a look and led Wanda over to the sofas in the living room.

“We had asked Tony to put us in contact with a lawyer before we got back to see if us adopting you would allow you to stay in the country,” Laura explained.

Wanda’s hands flew up to her mouth in shock when she heard that. “Why?”

“Why not?” Clint shot back. “Wanda, what in the last two years had made you think that we didn’t want to you? You are a part if this family and we love, and so do Cooper and Lila and Nate. This was something that we had been considering anyway, but we thought that we could use that to make sure you didn’t have to go back to Sokovia”

“You didn’t have to,” Wanda said.

“But we did,” Laura replied. “And we still want to. If this is something that you still want as well, then once you’ve got your citizenship sorted out, then this is something we can do”

Wanda nodded. Clint and Laura broke out in matching grins and both came over so the three were all together in a group hug.

“I love you,” Wanda muttered to her parents.

“We love you too,” Clint replied.

The three pulled away, Clint doing his best to wipe away his tears. Laura rolled her eyes at him and passed him a tissue from her pocket. She offered her to Wanda as well. Wanda accepted it, not realising that she’d been crying until then.

“Thank you,” Wanda said. “For this and everything that you’ve done for me over the last three years”

Clint rested one hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “You’re welcome Wanda Maximoff-Barton”

Wanda smiled at the sound of the name, for the first time hearing the double-barrelled surname attached to her own first name, and not just Tommy and Billy’s. “Goodnight,” she said, getting another hug off her parents before everyone headed off to bed. She was halfway to her room when she suddenly changed course, disappearing up a small and tucked away flight of stairs. She followed them up until she reached a door that opened out onto the roof of the Compound. Her favourite place to go and think had not changed at all since she’d last been there two years ago. Well, there was one difference. A figure sat by themselves on the far wall, feet hanging over the edge of the building, hair drifting slightly in the cool summer’s night breeze.

“Anya,” Wanda called out softly, not wishing to startle her older sister. Anya turned around slightly and smiled at her sister. Wanda hurried over to the girl and sat down next to her on the wall. “What are you doing out here?”

“Needed to get some air but didn’t want everyone watching me from the windows,” Anya said. “Also, I’m waiting for Lorna”

“How do you know she’ll come up here?” Wanda asked.

“Because after everything that happened today, she’ll want to get outside and think, just like we both obviously did,” Anya explained. “And I know she’ll come to the roof, she likes to be tall”

“You say that like you aren’t five foot six,” Wanda teased.

“Same height as you,” Anya shot back. “Besides, Lorna’s only five foot, so we’re both still taller than her”

Wanda let out a small laugh, before allowing a silence to settle over the pair. She slid closer to her sister and rested her head on Anya’s shoulder. After a few moments, the door behind them opened and they heard the sound of footsteps making their way across the gravel on the roof towards the two other girls. Neither turned around to look, both already knowing who was coming.

Lorna sat herself down on the wall and quickly manoeuvred herself, so she was lying flat on the wall, her head resting on Anya’s lap. She didn’t say anything, just enjoyed the silence and the cool night air with her sisters.

“They’re adopting me,” Wanda burst out after a few moments of silence, sitting up straighter so that her head was no longer resting on Anya’s shoulder. Anya turned slightly so she was looking at her sister and Lorna tilted her head back in Anya’s lap, so she could see her sister’s face. “My parents, Clint and Laura, they’re going to adopt me. Not right now because I need to get my citizenship sorted first, which should apparently be easy once we provide proof that I’m related to both of you, but once that’s done, they said they’re going to adopt me”

“And is that what you want?” Anya asked. Wanda nodded but didn’t meet either of her sisters’ eyes. “Then what’s wrong?”

“I feel like I’m abandoning you two and our father,” Wanda confessed. “You’re all still alive and I don’t want to lose you, but I don’t want to lose them either”

“Don’t let us stop you,” Lorna teased. She quickly carried on when she saw the looks the other two were giving her. “What? I’m serious. When I first arrived at that safe house, I could see right away how much of a part of that family you had become. You seemed happy with them, and you still do. And that was enough for me. You could’ve told me to leave and I would’ve done, I knew you were okay and you were with people who cared about you and that was all I wanted, to make sure that my sister was okay”

“Lorna, I would never ask you to leave,” Wanda said.

“Well, I know that now,” Lorna replied. “But seriously, don’t let me and Anya stop you from being with that part of your family”

“For once in her life, I think Lorna’s right,” Anya added, ignoring the look her youngest sister was giving her. “They are as much a part of your family as we are. Don’t let me and Anya come between you and them. Not now, not ever”

“Thank you,” Wanda said. She moved back so she was leaning against Anya’s shoulder again.

None of the girls said another word as they sat there that night, just sat there and let the cool breeze wash over them as they simply enjoyed being back together again for the first time in months until the sun disappeared over the horizon and the moon began to shine brightly in the sky.


	2. Getting On With Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life continues for the Avengers now living at the Compound

Peter slumped down in his chair next to Ned. It was the first day back at school and honestly, he would rather it wasn’t. Since the rest of the Avengers had arrived back at the Compound a couple of weeks ago, he’d spent almost every spare moment there. But now, being back at school where he had to deal with Flash all day, he wished he could turn back the clock by a week.

“Hey losers,” MJ said as she walked into the room.

“You’re dating this loser,” Peter pointed out.

MJ shrugged her shoulders casually but did slide her chair closer to Peter’s.

Cindy was the next person to arrive. She rushed over and sat in her normal seat in front of Ned, MJ and Peter. “Did you guys hear about the new girl?” she asked.

Peter looked between Ned and MJ, but neither of them seemed to know what Cindy was talking about. “Where did you hear about it?”

“I heard a load of people talking her in while I was at my locker,” Cindy explained. “They didn’t know much, but they saw someone new hanging around the office”

“This the new girl you’re talking about?” Flash asked as he came into the room. “I heard she’s hot but her hair’s apparently kinda weird”

“Is that really all you care about Flash?” MJ demanded. “How she looks? Seriously, at least try to act like you’re not that shallow”

“And you’re going to regret having said that in a second,” Cindy said. Her eyes were on the door and she was smirking slightly. Everyone followed her gaze to see Lorna Dane stood in the doorway. She was looking around the room, backpack thrown over one shoulder. She was wearing a knee length black denim skirt with a checked black and green shirt loosely tucked in along with fishnet tights and her signature leather jacket and ankle boots. Her so-called “weird” hair was in two plaits. She spotted Peter and his friends in the corner of the room and smiled at them before making her way over.

“Hey loser,” she said as she came and stood by the group. MJ turned to Peter and smirked at him, eyebrows raising slightly in a mocking fashion. “If it helps, I didn’t tell you yesterday because I didn’t know I was coming here until this morning. Anya came into my room and was just like “wake up bitch, you going to school” which was fun”

Cindy pushed out the chair next to her and Lorna sunk down next to her. “Good to see you, Lorna”

“When did you even see Parker yesterday?” Flash asked.

“He was at the Compound dumbass,” Lorna said. “Seriously, was me, Shuri and Wanda walking into his house not enough to prove that his Stark Internship was real?”

Flash didn’t say anything, just went and sat in his chair on the other side of the room, shooting an occasional glare at them.

“Is he always like that?” Lorna asked.

“Tragically so,” MJ replied just as their teacher walked into the room.

“Alright, settle down class,” she ordered.

As she carried on talking, Lorna felt a buzz in her pocket. She pulled her phone out and smiled when she saw the message was from Wanda. She opened it up to see that it was a selfie. In the picture, Wanda was holding a new copy of her birth certificate. Lorna could see Clint and Laura’s names written down officially as her parents, as well as Wanda’s name now being listed as “Wanda Maximoff-Barton”. She smiled slightly at the large grin on her sister’s face in the picture as she proudly held up the birth certificate to the camera.

“Miss Dane,” the teacher called from the front of the classroom. “I know you’re new to the school, but please, no phones in class”

“Sorry,” Lorna muttered before putting her phone away.

“As I was saying,” the teacher continued. “My name is Mrs Ally and I am your homeroom teacher for the year. I’m sure most of you know each other already. Well, except Miss Dane. Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?”

Lorna gave the teacher a look that clearly said she’d much rather not do that, but stood up anyway, smoothing down her skirt. “I’m Lorna Dane. Erm, I’m from Chicago, but I just moved upstate with my two older half-sisters the other week”

“If you live in upstate, why are you coming into the city for school?” someone asked.

“I already knew some people here, so my sisters thought it would be easier to convince me to go to school if they sent me here,” Lorna explained. “They didn’t tell me until this morning”

“Thank you, Miss Dane,” Mrs Ally said. “You may sit down now. I have no other notices for you today, so you can talk amongst yourselves for a few minutes until its time for first lesson”

Cindy turned in her seat, so she was facing Lorna. “Can I see your schedule?” Lorna pulled the sheet of paper out of her bag and showed it to the other girl. Cindy frowned when she saw the two schedules. “We only have two classes together; German and maths”

Lorna grinned. “Do you think I can convince them that I’m not already fluent in German?”

“How good are you at butchering pronunciation?” Cindy asked. “Because the teacher is an idiot and honestly it will hardly any effort on your part to trick him”

Lorna smirked at her as the bell rang. “When’ve we got German?”

“Right now,” Cindy said. She stood up. “Come on, I’ll show you”

Lorna stood up and walked out of the room with Cindy, throwing a quick wave to Peter and the others over her shoulder as she went.

Peter sighed and hit his head against the desk.

“What’s wrong?” MJ asked.

“Do you have any idea what it’s going to be like now that Lorna goes to school with us?” Peter said. “We’re doomed”

***

The pop of a champagne bottle startled Wanda and her parents as they walked back into the Compound. They looked over to see Tony stood in the kitchen, proudly holding the bottle, another couple on the table. The rest of the team was gathered around the table.

“We tried to convince him not to, but we just couldn’t,” Sam promised.

“We believe you,” Laura responded.

“Well, we wouldn’t be able to celebrate properly when the smaller agents are here, so we have to now,” Tony replied. He poured a glass for everyone and handed them around. “A toast to Wanda, Clint and Laura on making their unofficially adopted daughter and parents dynamic an official one”

Everyone clinked their glasses together and drank their drinks. Well, almost everyone.

“I get why Natasha isn’t drinking, but Hope, from what I remember from last Christmas, you are not one to turn down alcohol. Except for now. Why’s that?” Sam teased. Scott shot Hope a panicked look at Sam’s words. She elbowed him in the side as a prompt to act normal. “What? What are you two hiding?”

“Oh my god, Hope’s pregnant!” Pepper exclaimed as the realisation dawned on her. Everyone else turned to look at Hope and Scott.

“Well, I guess that secret is out,” Hope said, a nervous smile on her face. Pepper was the first to reach her and wrapper her friend up in a large hug, though she was quickly joined by Laura.

Sam eyed Natasha suspiciously. “You don’t seem to be at all surprised by any of this,” he said.

She shrugged slightly. “Of course I’m not, who do you think gave her the pregnancy tests that I never used?”

Natasha joined in on the hugging, although her eyes didn’t leave where Bruce was stood holding Oksana.

Pepper ended up stood to one side with Tony. She leant over so that her head was resting on his shoulder. “Seems there’s a bit of baby fever spreading around here”

“Seems so,” Tony agreed.

“It’ll be us next,” she teased.

Tony turned his head so that he was looking at her. A few years ago, the thought of becoming a father would have filled him with dread, terrified at the thought of treating his own kid the same way his father had treated him. But, after the last couple of years working with Peter, he thought that maybe he could do it after all. “Hope so”

***

Lila and Cassie sat by themselves at the back of the canteen.

“If someone else tries to talk to us about the Avengers I’m going to punch them,” Cassie muttered as she angrily bit into her sandwich.

“I won’t hold you back,” Lila promised.

A few moments later, another couple of girls walked up to their table and sat down.

“Hey,” said the first of the two girls. “I’m Jenna and this is Louise”

“Cassie,” Cassie replied. “This is Lila”

“Are you new?” Jenna asked. Lila nodded. “Cool. Is that why you’re hiding back on this table?”

“What do you mean?” Lila asked.

“This table is furthest from the popular girls over there,” Jenna explained, pointing at another table.

“So, this is the nerd table?” Lila said. 

Jenna nodded. “It’s okay, you didn’t know. You guys can leave now if you want. We get it, no one else ever wants to sit here with us” 

“No, I’m glad we found the right place,” Lila replied. “I was permanently on the nerd table back in Iowa. That’s what happens when you correct every single thing that people get wrong about the Avengers. Someone seriously thought that Uncle Steve would be homophobic because he was from the past. This was two weeks after he’d  _finally_ gotten together with Uncle Bucky” 

“Same happened to me,” Cassie added. “But that’s because I always defended Ant-Man from people making jokes about him” 

Louise stared at Lila and Cassie in awe. “So you two really are the Avenger’s kids? I heard people talking, but I didn’t think it was true” 

“Also, did you just say that Captain America and the Winter Soldier are dating?” Jenna asked. 

“Okay, both of those things are 100% true, but you can’t tell anyone,” Lila said. 

Jenna held her pinkie finger out to Lila. “Promise I won’t tell.” Lila grinned at her and the two girls shook pinkie fingers, Cassie and Louise doing the same to the side of them. 

“So,” Cassie said. “What’s everyone else like at this place?” 

Jenna and Louise and started pointing out people in the room, explaining the who’s who of the place. 

*** 

Cooper had also made some new friends by lunch. He was sat with a group of people from his new class, who despite being big fans of the Avengers, had managed to be cool about Hawkeye being his Dad. This was definitely one of the many times he was thankful that Hawkeye wasn’t as well known as the other Avengers. 

“Hey, Cooper, you any good at sports?” one of the boys, Jake, asked. 

“I’m good at archery,” Cooper answered with a deadpan look on his face. His face split out into a grin when he saw the looks on his new friend's faces. “I’m kidding. Well, sorta, I am pretty good at archery. But I like other sports as well. Why did you ask?” 

“There are tryouts for the soccer team later this week,” said another one of the boys, this one called Terry. “We were wondering if you wanted to try out as well” 

“Sure,” Cooper said. “That’s sounds fun” 

“Hey, how good is your aim?” a girl called Gina asked. 

Cooper looked at her sceptically. “Pretty good, why?”

Gina smirked. “The other team isn’t going to know what hit them”

***

“Would any of you mind if I killed Flash?” Lorna asked as she slammed her lunch tray down on the table.

“No,” Ned, MJ and Peter answered in complete unison.

“Good,” Lorna replied.

Ned looked up at her. “Hey, what took you so long? Your lunch period starts the same time as us”

“I got a little distracted leaving physics,” Lorna explained with a shrug. “Ended up having a really interesting discussion about magnetics with the teacher”

“How did German go?” Peter asked.

“Really bad,” Lorna said with a sigh. “You know how hard it can be to learn a new language.” An evil smirk spread across her face when she said the last part. “The dude has no clue I’m fluent”

“What were you looking at on your phone earlier?” MJ asked. She turned her notebook around to show Lorna a sketch of her in homeroom that morning, sneaking a glance at her phone.

“I thought you only drew people in crisis,” Lorna said.

“Normally, I do,” MJ replied. “But sometimes I draw follow-ups to after the crisis.” She flicked back several pages to a picture of Lorna sprawled out on Peter’s sofa, swollen, broken ankle propped up on the coffee table. “But you didn’t answer my question”

“Wanda sent me a photo,” Lorna explained. “It was of her and her new birth certificate. Her adoption went through this morning and Clint and Laura are now officially her parents”

“Maybe you were in crisis after all,” MJ reasoned.

“What? No!” Lorna defended. “I mean, sure it feels a little weird her legally having a completely different set of parents to me and Anya, but just this time last year, she didn’t even know about us. She built a life with Clint and Laura and her other siblings long before we came into the picture, I can’t just take that away from her or expect her to leave them behind. Believe me, she tried a temporary version of all that while we were with the Mutant Underground and she hated it”

“You guys see about that new superhero Silk?” Ned asked. “The one hanging around in Queens”

“Wait, another one?” Lorna exclaimed. “Seriously, how many are there these days?”

“And remember how Cindy said she been bitten by like a spider or something?” Ned continued without answering Lorna’s question.

“Where are you going with this Ned?” Peter asked.

“It kinda looks like Cindy’s wearing the Silk suit underneath her shirt,” Ned pointed out. The rest of the group turned to look at Cindy; MJ and Lorna managed to maintain some sense of dignity and subtlety, Peter not so much.

“You think I should look into it?” Peter asked.

“If you’re planning on it, at least wait for me,” Lorna replied. “I’m working on a pretty cool suit back at the Compound”

“Really!” Ned excitedly exclaimed. Lorna nodded. “That’s so cool! Have you got a codename yet?”

“I was thinking Polaris”

***

“When you used to make jokes about how that this wasn’t your hair’s natural colour, I thought you meant you were blonde?” Pepper said as she helped Natasha with the home hair dye. “Not just more orange than red”

“Yeah, you already saw my natural colour back after the whole S.H.I.E.L.D. fiasco four years ago,” Natasha replied. “Not that anyone knew at the time. Thanks for helping me with this by the way. You're meant to be able to dye your hair once your over three months pregnant, but considering how we didn’t think that it was going to even be possible for me and Bruce to have kids in the first place, I didn’t want to risk anything happening to Sana”

“Sana? I see we have a nickname already,” Pepper teased. She let out a small laugh when she got a jab in the side from her friend.

“So, have you and Tony gotten a date sorted for the reception yet?” Natasha asked.

“September 14th,” Pepper replied. “I know it’s soon, but if we don’t do it before the traditional Avengers Halloween party, then we never will. What about you and Bruce? You two decide on when you’re going to get married?”

“Not really,” Natasha said. “We couldn’t exactly plan while we were in hiding and then when we found we were coming back, we were too busy with planning for Sana.” Natasha smiled slightly. “I was thinking we give it a while, wait until she can walk and then she can be the flower girl”

“That would so cute,” Pepper commented.

“Yeah, it would,” Natasha grinned.

***

“So Steve, when do you plan on coming out?” Sam asked as he walked into the main living room. everyone else turned to look at Sam, but he didn’t notice as he was too busy staring at his phone.

“Sam, I came out over a year ago, I literally have a boyfriend,” Steve pointed out.

Sam looked up at last and grabbed the TV remote. He turned the TV on and started flicking through channels. “I didn’t mean to us, I meant to everyone else.” He stopped on a channel that was hosting a segment on a talk show about the Avengers return to the Compound.

“While the Avengers have neither confirmed or denied reports that Natasha Romanoff, the former spy known by her alias the Black Widow, has given birth to a child during her absence, their silence on the matter seems to say it all,” the host said.

Natasha glared at the screen, newly dyed hair framing her face, Oksana lying in her arms. “Is that really all they care about?”

“Now, some right-wing groups have stated their excitement at Captain Steve Rogers, more commonly known as Captain America, returning to the public eye and what it means for them,” the host continued. Everyone in the room groaned; they knew this couldn’t be good. “They believe that now Rogers is back, he will aid these groups in their efforts to help restore what they like to refer to as America’s “traditional” standards”

Steve pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Well, here we go.” He typed something out and then put his phone back away. “I’m really glad that my Twitter account has been unlocked,” he said before turning his attention back to the TV screen.

***

“Lorna, have you seen this?” Cindy whispered. The pair were in their maths class, sat together at the back of the classroom.

When Lorna gave her a confused look, Cindy discretely passed her phone under the table to her friend. Lorna looked down to see twitter open on a recent tweet from Steve.

**@CaptainRogersAmerica** _bi the way, I’m not straight_

It was accompanied by a selfie of Steve and Bucky from Christmas. Steve was taking the picture and Bucky was pressing a kiss to his cheek, a piece of mistletoe hanging over their heads.

“Atta boy Stevie,” Lorna smiled. She passed the phone back to Cindy and the two carried on with their work, small grins on their faces.

***

“Do you think we should do something like Steve did?” Natasha asked. She was on her front on her and Bruce’s bed. Her face was propped up with one hand, the other in Oksana’s bassinet, gently stroking her daughter’s cheek. “We can’t hide her existence forever and it would be easier to get this over and done with now”

Bruce came and set next to her on the bed, his hand resting on the small of her back. “I’ve already had Jennifer calling me to see if the rumours were true,” he said as he looked down at his fiancée and daughter. “I think she was annoyed that I didn’t let her know sooner. She said she wanted to come visit. She wants to meet you and Sana”

“Did you say yes?” Natasha asked.

“I said I would talk to you first,” Bruce responded.

“Tell her yes,” she said. “I think I’d like to meet her too”

Bruce’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out and opened up the text.

**Tony Stark:** If you two want to make a baby announcement, you can use this

With the message, he’d sent a picture of the family as they were sat now. Bruce looked up to where the bedroom door had been left open. “Seriously Tony”

Natasha moved her head slightly, so she could see the photo. “I didn’t even know he was there. Man, I’m slipping. Are we gonna do it?”

“Sure, let’s do it”

***

Cindy passed her phone back to Wanda, this time to show her a tweet from Natasha.

**@OfficialBlackWidow** _Delighted to confirm the rumours. On the 16 th of August, Bruce and I welcomed our baby girl, Oksana Jennifer Banner into the world._

The tweet was also accompanied by a picture of the family together.

Lorna was passed the phone back to Cindy, simply smiling when she saw the shocked looked on her friend’s face. She quickly glanced at her own phone and saw she had a text from her sister.

**Wanda Maximoff-Barton:** I feel like I need to tweet

**Wanda Maximoff-Barton:** Like about the adoption

**Wanda Maximoff-Barton:** Get me some of the attention

Lorna suppressed a giggle at her sister’s antics and quickly shot a text back.

**Lorna Dane:** Then do it

**Wanda Maximoff-Barton:** iwonthesitatebitch.gif

Lorna grinned and shoved her phone back in her pocket. Less than a minute later, Cindy’s phone was thrust back at her. Lorna smiled, already knowing what she was about to see.

**@WandaWitch** _As of this morning, I am officially a Barton **@RealHawkeye @LBarton** love you_

Wanda had posted with it the same selfie she’d sent Lorna that morning. Lorna passed her phone back to Cindy, biting down on her lip to stop herself from laughing loudly.

“Oh my god. Miss, have you seen what the Avengers have been posting on twitter?” someone asked at the front of the classroom. Everyone else started looking at their phones, including the teacher.

“Wait, what?” someone else exclaimed.

Lorna hit her head against the table in an attempt to muffle her laughter as she listened to the shocked exclamations around her. “God I hate my family”

***

“So, how was school?” Anya asked when Lorna walked back into the Compound that evening.

Lorna dumped her bag by one of the sofas and threw herself over the arm landing face down with the back of her legs hanging over the arm.

“That bad, huh?” Sam said.

Lorna rolled over on the sofa, almost throwing herself off. “It wasn’t bad, it was just weird. Like, back in Chicago, nobody knew about the whole having an Avenger for a sister thing. And although not everyone here knows, enough people do to make today weird. Especially when you’re being idiots on twitter”

“They started getting a little competitive and nothing ever good happens then,” Sam explained.

“Trust me, I know,” Lorna said. “See: your inter-Avengers fight at a German airport”

“Touché Dane,” Sam replied, ignoring Anya’s snort of laughter. “Touché”

***

_Two weeks later_

14th September 2018 19:00 EST Pepper and Tony’s wedding reception

“TO TONY AND PEPPER!” everyone cheered as they raised their glasses of champagne in the air.

“Do you ever wear anything other than green?” Peter asked Lorna as the noise of the cheers died down.

“I wore orange once,” Lorna answered.

“That’s different,” Peter teased.

“It was the prison uniform I wore when I was held captive,” Lorna added.

“Oh,” Peter said. “Green suits you”

“Thanks,” Lorna replied. The two stood in an awkward silence for a few seconds. “I’m going to go find my sisters”

“I’m gonna see where MJ and Ned got to,” Peter said at the same time. The pair looked at each other. “It was great talking to you”

“Likewise,” Lorna said. The two then turned and walked away from each other without saying another word. Lorna quickly spotted her sister, but as she got closer, she quickly realised she wasn’t alone. “Shuri? I didn’t know you were coming” 

The two girls briefly hugged before Shuri pulled back, a serious look on her face. “Can we talk somewhere else?" 

***

“This is Earth,” Shuri introduced as she placed the holographic projector on the conference room table, her voice switching to effortless Sokovian as if she didn’t want to risk anyone listening in on their conversation. 

"You don’t say,” Lorna said in a sarcastic tone. 

Shuri rolled her eyes and moved the hologram so that they were looking at the Indian Ocean before zooming in on an archipelago. “That’s the Seychelles. At first glance, everything seems normal, but recently, one of Wakanda’s satellites picked up this.” Shuri pressed a few buttons on her bracelet and the image shifted, revealing a new island. “As far as I can tell, no other map in the world has this island pictured on it, except for a few highly classified government ones. They call it Genosha” 

“Never heard of it,” Wanda said. 

“I have,” Lorna added. She looked over at Shuri. “The maps that show it, they’re from the same files as the mutant disappearance back in the seventies, aren’t they?” Shuri nodded. “Dad mentioned it before, he said that while some mutants did stay in this country and go into hiding, a lot more from all over the world fled there instead. It’s meant to be like some kind of mutant haven” 

“And that’s where you think he is,” Wanda finished. 

“You haven’t been able to locate him anywhere within the mutant community in this country, and nobody knows where he vanished to,” Shuri pointed out. “I just think this might be the best way to try and find him” 

Wanda turned to Lorna. “How soon do you think we can leave?” 

Lorna stared at her sister. “You’re ready to go on this hunt again?” 

“If finding our father is what we need to do to save the future and our sister, then I’m am one hundred per cent in,” Wanda confirmed. “There’s just one thing I’ve got to do first” 

***

“Wanda?” Lila said as she rounded the corner. She noticed the two bags her sister was holding. “What are you doing? Where are you going?” 

Wanda rushed over to her younger sister, kneeling down on the floor so they were at the same height. “Listen, me and Lorna have to go again. I’m sorry, but you know I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have to. But I made you a promise that no matter what, I wouldn’t leave again without telling you first” 

“How long will you be gone?” Lila asked. 

“Just a few days, a week tops,” Wanda promised. “Now go back to the party and don’t tell anyone that we’ve left. Shuri’s staying behind and she said she’ll explain to everyone once we’re gone” 

Lila nodded before throwing her arms around her sister. “I’ll miss you” 

“I’ll miss you too” 

***

Lorna watched from the window as the Compound faded from view behind them. “Didn’t know you knew how to fly a quinjet” 

Wanda looked over at her from the pilot’s chair. “Yeah, Dad’s been teaching me since we got back. I’ve gotten pretty good. Besides, I only need to do take-off and landing. The autopilot will get us there and back" 

“What’s in the bags?” Lorna asked. 

Wanda turned the chair around and stood up. She walked over and opened them up. “I thought we could use these?”  

Lorna grinned widely. “Can I say it?” 

“Go ahead,” Wanda said with a sigh.  

“SUIT UP!” Lorna all but yelled. She looked around the empty quinjet. “I feel like that is cooler with more people” 

“It is,” Wanda replied. The two girls each grabbed the bags containing their suits and quickly changed.  

Wanda’s suit was almost the same as it had been back in Germany. The only difference was it was now a more vibrant red and now featured a headpiece. It was the same shade of red as the rest of her suit and was in the shape of a curved M, designed to help her focus her powers. 

Lorna’s was form fitting and a green a few shades lighter than he hair. The top was similar in design to Wanda’s with a green cape attached at the shoulders. On her head was an identical headpiece to Wanda’s except that it was in the same shade of green as the rest of her suit.

“Copycat,” Wanda muttered when she saw the headpiece.

“I may have borrowed yours and realised how useful it was,” Lorna confessed. “So I took the spare one and covered it in the green fabric”

Wanda playfully hit her sister in the arm before the two settled down for the long flight.

***

It was nine hours later when the autopilot system informed the girls that they were entering the Genoshan airspace. Wanda climbed back into the seat and carefully landed the quinjet on a secluded beach. As the two looked out the window they could see the outline of a city in the near distance.

“Man, am I glad we can both fly without the jet,” Lorna said. “Can you imagine trying to land the jet closer to the city?”

“Or we could just walk,” Wanda suggested. Lorna pulled a confused face, looking at her sister as if she’d just grown a second head. Wanda pressed a few buttons on the console and the ramp to the back of the jet lowered down. “Well, here goes nothing”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Genosha...

**Author's Note:**

> Finally finished this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. I'm hoping to 24 Days of Ficmas again this year and I have most of it planned out, but I still have four days without anything planned, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would be eternally grateful.
> 
> Also, would anyone be interested in Kamala/Miles becoming a thing in this universe, I've recently noticed how much that tag is lacking and wasn't sure if that was a direction I was interested in going or not


End file.
